General Description

Ventral margin of orbit and suborbital angle unarmed. Antennal scale half as long as carapace. First and second legs (pereopods 1-2) similar, with long slender pectinate fingers (bearing rows of fine closely spaced spines along cutting edge). Last segment (dactylus) of first leg (pereopod 1) with 20-44 spines. Abdominal somite 5 with dorsal margin convex in lateral view, unarmed; abdominal somite 6 without dorsal lobe. Tail fan (telson) with 1 pair of dorsolateral spines set well posterior to pair of mesial spines. Carapace length up to 5 mm.

Biology

The Sydney Comb Shrimp lives on the seafloor from the subtidal down to about 400 m depth and is common across the entire southern Australian coast. The family Pasiphaeidae, to which this species belongs, is noted for the opposing rows of fine spine-like teeth on the fingers of the chelipeds. These would seem to make the shrimp a fierce predator but nothing is known of its behaviour.